Post-Quake Report Urges UCLA to Build New Medical Center

An architectural and engineering review of UCLA’s Center for Health Sciences, conducted in the wake of the Northridge earthquake, has recommended replacing the UCLA Medical Center and the Neuropsychiatric Hospital at a cost of $930 million over 10 years.

The review found that the alternative--retrofitting the existing buildings--would cost more than $2 billion and would take 22 years because of difficulties in bringing the 40-year-old building up to modern standards and relocating patients while the work goes on.

By building new structures on a different site, the review concluded, UCLA will be able to maintain patient care while creating buildings that would better withstand major earthquakes.

The review emphasized that UCLA’s hospital buildings are now safe to occupy, but they might not be able to remain operational in the wake of another quake. UCLA Medical Center, as a designated Level 1 trauma center for Los Angeles County, accommodates the most serious kinds of trauma cases.

“Given the age and the nature of the facility, the replacement plan is the most cost-effective, as well as being much less time-consuming and disruptive to patient care,” said UCLA Vice Chancellor for Capital Programs Peter W. Blackman, who noted that the original portion of the facility was built in 1954, when seismic standards were less rigorous than today.

The review’s cost estimates far outstrip previous calculations. As recently as October, UCLA architect Charles Oakley put UCLA’s damage estimates at $630 million for the entire campus, including $38 million for historic Royce Hall. At that time, officials estimated that it would cost $500 million to retrofit or rebuild the 9,100-room health sciences complex.

In contrast, the cost of repairing the Cal State Northridge campus, where the 1994 earthquake caused a parking structure to collapse and damaged 53 major buildings, is estimated at $350 million.